Great Minds Think Alike
by Caroline Tennant
Summary: The Doctor comes to Scotland in 1994, drifting about through space and time in solitude. While exploring, he meets a girl named Hermione Granger. What happens when they strike up a friendship and help solve a mystery in ancient Roman Britain?  No romance.
1. Chapter 1: Beginnings

The door of the police box opened. A tall, skinny man in a long trench coat and brown suit stepped out, looking around. Snow was falling softly on the rugged landscape. Everywhere he looked, he could see craggy hills covered by a thin layer of snow.

"Scotland again, and my, my, look at the snow," he muttered to himself absentmindedly. He'd always had a habit of talking to himself. There was nothing wrong with it, he thought, though others did find it a bit odd. Oh well. He was the Doctor. He didn't know why they found him strange, and he frankly didn't care.

He started walking onward. He didn't really have a destination; he just wanted to have a look around. He continued forward until he reached a patch of trees. He wasn't much of an outdoorsman, having the TARDIS to carry him everywhere he needed to go, but he enjoyed a good saunter once in a while. He hadn't had anyone to talk to in a while, so he needed some fresh air. He was beginning to even get a bit lonely. _Lonely, heh,_ he thought. _Last of the Time Lords, I should be lonely._

As he reached the top of the hill, he began to see a path forming a couple meters away. He followed it with his eyes and saw a lone girl walking across it. _What in Rassilon's name is that girl doing out in the middle of nowhere in the winter?_ He thought. He decided to go investigate for himself.

He ran a little fartherdown the hill towards the unsuspecting girl, whose back was turned. When he was closer, he greeted her.

"Hello, there," he said. "I'm the Doctor, what's your name?"

"Erm, Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you, sir." As he got a closer look at her, the Doctor noticed that she was about fifteen years old, with puffy, dirty blonde hair beneath her maroon and gold hat. She looked rather innocent, but there was also an air of wisdom and maturity that surrounded her.

"Same to you," he said with a smile. "Do you think you could tell me where we are?" said the Doctor, looking around at the rather barren, isolated surroundings.

"Well, we're on the Hogwarts grounds, of course," said Hermione. "Haven't you ever been here, sir?"

"Doctor, Doctor – call me Doctor. Never liked 'sir' much. Too official, isn't it? Anyway, no, I haven't heard of Hogwarts. Could you tell me?" the Doctor said.

"Well, it's the British school of wiz – wait a moment. Are you a… a Muggle?"

"No, not me, I'm, er… different. Not a Muggle. Would you mind walking with me, Miss Granger?"

Hermione seemed a bit uneasy. She had always known to trust reason, but this man had some allure of adventure that she couldn't resist. _After all, I _am _a Gryffindor,_ she thought. She knew he wasn't a Muggle from the passive, unperplexed way he responded to her inquiry. Little did she know, he wasn't a wizard _or_ a Muggle. She agreed and they began to walk together down the path.

"So, this… Hogwarts. What do you learn there?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, this year I'm taking Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Runes, Arithmatics, Herbology, and some other classes, it's really stimulating!" she said with a smile.

_A teenage girl who doesn't hate learning? _The Doctor thought. Her statement shocked him. Most fifteen year olds at this time weren't into that, so it seemed peculiar. She had something to her that almost reminded him of himself as a child. Not that he was much different at 907.

"Brilliant!" he exclaimed. "Ever take the sciences, Hermione? They're simply fascinating."

"Well, Potions are a lot like chemistry… I took science class at school back home, and they kind of remind me of Potions, yes," she said. "The way everything fits together – it's like the universe all makes sense! If only the Muggles knew that was how everything worked…" she said, wildly gesticulating. Her eyes were maddened now, as if she had been waiting her whole life for someone to talk to this about.

The Doctor was very pleased. "Yes! So much to learn, so many places to go, so many details to explore… it's all brilliant. So how do you get to this Hogwarts school?"

Hermione grew a little confused. "Well, it's at the end of this path. So what do you do for a living, Doctor?"  
"Well, I mostly just travel, fix stuff. Nothing special, really," he said, shaking his head modestly. He never _was_ one to show off too much. "Like to see the uni-er, world, you know?" The Doctor could see a lake a little way ahead. He realized how far they had walked and suddenly stopped in place, looking around. "Hmm… it's rather cold out today, Miss Granger. What do you say we go have some warm tea? Anywhere around here you think we could go?"

"Well, there's The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. Where's your car? Probably not a good idea to leave it out in the snow, you know," she said.

"Oh, it'll be fine. Come on, let's run!" he said, thrusting his hands in his coat pockets and bending down to run in the snowy air. Hermione followed, laughing all the way.

-x-

"So, Hermione, anything odd happen around here lately?" the Doctor asked. He was used to finding trouble wherever he went, and this probing question was usual.

"No, not anything in particular, not that I can think of," she said. There wasn't much happening yet besides the earliest phase of the Triwizard Tournament, which was hardly _odd, _just not typical.

"Hmm, alright… well, can't find trouble everywhere you go," the Doctor said, a bit disappointed. He had been needing a good adventure.

Hermione laughed. "You talk about trouble like it's a good thing, Mr. Doctor," she said. "I mean, I like good fun as much as the next girl, but still… I think it's better to lie low. I've had my fair share of trouble lately."

The Doctor was intrigued now. "Really? Like what?"

"Well, You-Know-Who almost returned _twice _during my first and second years. And then last year, there was Professor Lupin, who - oh, you probably know."

"What about Professor Lupin, Hermione?" the Doctor said. The details of this town were just a little too strange for him to sit back and relax; he needed to find out what was going on here.

"Well… he was a werewolf," she whispered, looking around.

The Doctor couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Werewolf again? Last time I was in Scotland…" he muttered to himself. Hermione looked at him strangely. "Oh. Right. Sorry. Just talking to myself. I guess it might be a habit, isn't it? Never mind. So a werewolf, eh?"

"Yes, it was wretched. And the Dementors and Sirius Black and Wormtail… a little too much danger for fourteen year olds, but nothing we Gryffindors couldn't handle," she said, with an air of pride.

"Gryffindor? What's that, your team?"

"No, it's my house. There's Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and… Slytherin," she said with a scowl at the end of her sentence. "I'm not on any teams. I never fancied sports much, though I do watch the Quidditch games."

"Ah, I see. Neither was I," he said. "Preferred doing my exercises up here," said the Doctor, tapping his head.

Hermione smiled. "So do I. My classes this year have been demanding, to say the least. But it will be worth it one day when I get all Os on my N.E.W.T.S!"

The Doctor began to realize that asking about every single thing Hermione said would probably just annoy her, so he decided to ignore that last comment about newts or boots or whatever.

They talked for a while longer, discussing mathematics and astronomy until their tea went cold. The Doctor was shocked to discover how knowledgeable she was; definitely more capable than average fifteen year olds. He began to see a bit of himself in her, the parts of him that were bold and daring when necessary, but really enjoyed knowledge as well.

When it came time for them to leave, they walked back to the field where the police box stood. The Doctor made a bold move: he asked her if she wanted to see it.

"Sure, I'd love to. Is it vintage? How'd it get here? Did you transfigure it or summon it or – "

"Just look inside," the Doctor said, opening the creaky door as he had for countless others. But this time it was different.

Hermione looked inside and saw the glowing yellow interior; the flashing lights surrounded by coral and metal and strange contraptions of all sorts. Her face glowed as she gasped in surprise. "It's – it's bigger on the inside," she said, trying to make sense of it all in her busy mind. "Which Charm did you use? Is that an Undetectable Extension Charm?"

"No, it's… it's special. So what do you think?"

"Merlin's Beard, I think it's brilliant. Do you live here?"

"Mostly, yeah," the Doctor said.

"What do you do in it? Is it like the Room of Requirement? I've never seen it before on the grounds, it's looks like a Muggle thing from the outside but inside – no, no, it couldn't be Muggle, must be..."

The Doctor smiled. Her calculating brain was nearly as sharp as his, doggedly trying to figure out the mystery of the TARDIS.

"Well… it travels in time," he said softly.

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed, trying to reconcile this with her theories. "But it's –"

"It's called a TARDIS. Time and relative dimensions in space," he said gently. "I'd better get going now, though, I'm not needed here. But before I go, want to take a look inside?"

"Sure!" Hermione said, probably a bit too eagerly. She stepped in and marveled at the wonder, observing all of the strange gadgets on the console.

"Where are the other five?" she said abruptly, after examining the console.

The Doctor was taken off guard. "Five?" he asked.

"Yes, the other five pilots," said Hermione. "The console is hexagonal, and there are entirely too many devices for _one_ pilot to handle, so the only logical conclusion is that there must be more pilots to… to maneuver this thing," she said proudly.

The Doctor dropped his jaw, which suddenly turned into a smile. "You're right, you're absolutely right," he said, shocked at her intellect. Then his tone changed. "But it's just me in here. They're all gone."

Hermione looked a bit sad, but didn't ask any more questions than she needed to. She examined the coral on the walls, trying to determine their origin. It was certainly nothing she had seen in Herbology, that was for sure.

"Could I – could I come with you?" she said, quietly. "I mean, if it travels through time, I could be back a minute from now. Would you –?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. He hadn't had a companion in a while, and none Hermione's age in decades. Teenagers could be a problem, but then again, Hermione wasn't a regular teenager. She seem to be very bright and sensible for her age. But if anything happened to another one of his companions… the pain would be too great. What could he do? After mulling over his choices for a few more seconds, he finally realized that there really should not have been a doubt in his mind.

"Yes," he said. "Absolutely." Hermione grinned. He started pulling the cranks and starting the TARDIS. "Where do you want to go?"

"Where? I thought it just traveled in time."

"All of time and space. Anything that ever happened is yours to explore. Where first?"

"Hmm," Hermione said, trying to decide where. It was a horrible decision to make, though still wonderful; she felt like she was neglecting the rest of history when she tried to single out one part. Then the thought came to her. "How about London, 81 A.D.?" she asked. She had always remembered learning about Rome in Latin class at school. The time period was interesting, too, as the Celtic wizards were often discussed in History of Magic, but she had never been able to travel there with the little Time Turner that she was allowed to use.

"Well then, 81 A.D. London it is! Allons-y, Hermione Granger!" the Doctor said, and the TARDIS came alive with buzzes and whirs as he began to fly it into the past with his new friend, Hermione Granger.


	2. Chapter 2: Landing

The TARDIS was swerving and jostling while it zoomed through the Time Vortex. Hermione was walking around in wonder, trying to take it all in. The strange coral on the walls, the wires madly strewn about, and the holes in the walls only made the already-exciting experience even more amazing. Her head kept trying to reconcile this type of time travel with the other one that she had already experienced, searching for connections between the two. She couldn't find many.

"So Doctor, how does this thing _work?_" she asked pensively.

"Well, it's quite complicated, really, but to put it rather simply, it bends dimensions, one of which is time, and everything… well… you'll see. It's all a bit weebly-wobbly." The Doctor gave her a wink and a grin. She laughed.

Hermione nodded. It certainly didn't sound like what she had seen before.

"You know, Doctor, I was wondering… are there other types of time travel?" she asked, twirling her finger in her hair, the way she always did when she was thinking hard.

"Oh, sure, sure, there are Vortex Manipulators, Emergency Temporal Shifts… lots of things. Not always the best kind, in my opinion, but they work. Why do you ask?"

"Well, last year, I was taking entirely too many classes, you see, and I needed to get to some that took place at the same time. My professor gave me this device. It was called a Time Turner," she said slowly, "it allowed me to literally wind back time. Have you heard of it?"

The Doctor glanced up abruptly when he heard this. Another time traveler? A human? From 1994? It didn't seem to add up. Searching through his mind, he tried to remember a type of time manipulator that would be around during Hermione's time period. His search came up dry. "No, no, I haven't. Sounds brilliant though; 'D love to get my hands on it, take a look at how it works. What kind of school _is_ this, Hermione?"

"It's a school of… of witchcraft and wizardry," she said, still a little shocked that he didn't know of Hogwarts and yet landed so close to it. Most Muggles never ventured up to that remote part of the Highlands.

"I see," said the Doctor. He didn't really believe much in magic, as he was more of a science man. However, he always stayed open-minded. The "magic" that the Carrionites performed was easily misconstrued as magic, and Hermione could be involved in something that had a purely scientific explanation. He smiled and continued flying the TARDIS.

"Doctor… you're not a wizard, are you?" Hermione asked slowly, finally realizing why he wasn't familiar with Hogwarts.

He looked her in the eye, a twinkle gleaming in its brown center. He loved when people realized that he wasn't quite one of them. "No, I'm not."

Hermione got the answer she was expecting, but how could she explain this type of technology? She had lived with Muggles for most of her life, and she _knew_ that this wasn't what the typical English man had in his garage. "And you're not a human, either?" Hermione said softly.

The Doctor winked. "Nope!"

"So… what _are_ you, Doctor?"

"I'm a Time Lord. You look like us, but there are a few fundamental differences," he said patiently. He was always patient with children. He found that he had more in common with them than with adults, generally. "For example, you have one heart; we – I have two." He caught himself referring to the Time Lords as "we" again. _Bad Doctor,_ he thought. He needed to stop getting in the habit of doing that. He was on his own; he had been for a while. So why was it so hard for him to get used to not being Time Lord?

Hermione's eyes widened. Another species? This changed her thought processes completely. She wondered she hadn't heard of the Time Lords in her readings before. She had known all about hobbits, trolls, and the like from her late nights at the library, but Time Lords were never discussed. And yet the Doctor looked so human… she put her thoughts away for a moment and glanced at the screen on the hexagonal console. A grassy field was appearing on it, with no human settlement in sight. The TARDIS began to jerk around, making screeching, whirring noises. The Doctor was busy landing it, so she didn't want to bother him.

As the whirring finally came to an end, the TARDIS settled and stopped moving. Hermione felt a little strange; what was out there? Was it _really_ 81 A.D.? She would normally be quite skeptical about this sort of thing, but her previous knowledge had proven that it was possible to some extent. After all, that was how she thought things out: analyzing things based on her knowledge about related things and comparing them. It had worked for her before, why shouldn't it work for her now?

The Doctor motioned toward the door. "Well, there you have it, Miss Granger! 81 A.D., London. Well, it's called Londinium at the moment. Don't worry about the language though; TARDIS takes care of that for you," he said, patting the console like a deal old friend.

Hermione hesitated. "Can I –?" she asked shyly.

"Of course! Just stick by me and don't run off," he said. That brought his old companions to mind, and some painful thoughts surged through him. He reminded himself that he was dealing with a young girl here, not an adult, and it'd be better for everyone if he stayed pleasant.

Hermione walked towards the door and smiled before opening it up and stepping out into a land that was the same city she often visited, and yet a totally different one in a different respect. She boldly ventured forth into a land no Hogwarts student had gone before: the ancient past.

The second she opened the door, her mouth gaped open in surprise. The air was so fresh, so clean! The sky was bright blue, with a few clouds gently hanging in it. _A bit unusual for England, _she thought. As she looked around, there was not a human in sight, save for a couple of huts on the horizon.

"Where is everyone, Doctor?" she asked. She knew Canary Wharf wouldn't be here, but this was a little _too_ empty.

"Oh, we're on the outskirts of the settlement. Didn't want to land the TARDIS is such an ostentatious place. Might scare old Caesar, you know? Don't want to run into him, actually. Bit of an issue between him, Cleopatra, and I…"

"Can we go to the settlement?" Hermione was anxious to see the ancient town. She was going to see real people, real Romans!

"Of course! What are we waiting for? Allons-y!"

They ran to the east, headed for the huts. Hermione wished she knew how to Apparate, which would get them there more easily. Then the thought dawned upon her: were there any witches or wizards in this part of ancient Britain? Surely there had to be, they were all over the place during this era, why not in Londinium? Aquae Sulis at Bath had divinators like Professor Trelawney, and Stonehenge was famous for even older witchcraft. She secretly hoped that they would find some ancient wizards on their adventure.

When they finally arrived at the huts, they came across an old man with a long beard. Remembering her Roman history, Hermione realized that he was a Celt, as Romans were clean-shaven. The Doctor stopped in front of him and greeted him.

"Good day, sir, how are you? Could you tell me how far we are from the castra?" Castra? Now that was a word Hermione couldn't remember from her early studies of Latin.

"Of course, sir. It's a mile east of here. What are you doing there?"

"Oh just some business for the army, that's all," the Doctor said. The old man's face hardened.

"Erm… Doctor…" Hermione tried to cut him off. _I don't think the Celts are big fans of the Romans, _she thought. She whispered this to him, and he nodded.

"You know, the army of the Catuvellauni tribe," the Doctor added, trying to correct himself. The old man's face grew softer and he smiled.

"Go right ahead, sir," he stated in his deep, husky voice. They passed and walked farther into the settlement.

As they continued on, they saw more and more people. They were getting closer to the center. Hermione turned to the Doctor and looked at his face, which was eagerly scanning the crowd. He noticed this and looked down at her.

"Hermione, do you notice anything a bit odd here?" he said with a grin.

"No, not really," she said, looking about the roads with great care, her mind whirring at a mile a minute. "Wait a minute… where are the Romans?"

"Exactly. Londinium is a Roman town in Roman Britain during the height of the Roman Empire, so where are all the Romans?"

**Author's Note: More to come shortly. I hope you like it so far! The action is just about to get started! Where are the Romans? We'll soon find out! (Also, this is not related to the events in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang. They just take place in a similar time period, pure coincidence.)**


	3. Chapter 3: Something's Missing

As the Doctor and Hermione continued down the main road, people started to stare at them. This wasn't unusual for the Doctor, who tended to tune that sort of thing out, and Hermione was used to being different, so neither one noticed. Hermione was busy taking it all in; the sights, the sounds, and especially the smells. There was no substitute for this type of learning; not even Wizard photos could convey this sort of experience. The absence of Romans became even more glaring. On the side of the road, they saw a temple, where a man was standing near the outdoor altar.

This man was not a typical man; he was a Celt, but he was standing in front of a Roman temple. The temple was tall, with an altar in front of it. He was about forty years old, with only a few teeth left. He appeared to be shouting. Noticing this, they Doctor led Hermione a little closer to him.

"They are here!" he shouted. "They have come! They have found us! It has come to pass!"

The Doctor walked over to the man. "Who's come? What are they going to do?" he asked in a friendly manner.

"_They _are here! They want to – want to…" he trailed off, mesmerized by the vast, blue sky.

The Doctor wasn't very satisfied with this answer, so he probed a bit more. "Are they trying to hurt you? Are they malevolent?"

"Yes! First they took _them_… soon they shall take _us!_"

Hermione wasn't very pleased with this vague use of pronouns, but she was certainly interested. She was always up for a good mystery, and this seemed like one. Although she was skeptical of the man, who could very well just be mad, she secretly hoped that there was something more sinister going on.

"So, how do you know about _them,_ my good sir?" the Doctor asked.

"The birds have fallen… they say that during the last days, the birds shall fall…"

A switch went off in Hermione's head. Her studies of Latin, which had done their job of immensely improving her incantations, had taught her a thing or two about Roman culture as well. The people of the Roman world were fascinated, just as many humans still were, with knowing what would happen before it actually did. One of these "methods" was through examining the patterns of birds in the sky. It seemed absurd, but the people took quite a bit of stock in the idea that flocks of birds' patterns were real ways of predicting the future. She tried to remember the name of this type of person. _Ah… au… augur! _She thought to herself. This man was an augur, a predictor of the future and observer of birds. She normally would have chuckled at the ludicrousness of it all, but she remembered the tale of Julius Caesar's death and its prediction, so she decided not to mock this.

"Doctor," she said, wanting to share this recent discovery.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"See, he's one of those… augures. They –"

"—watch the birds in the sky," he said finishing her sentence. She was surprised at how often their minds ran on the same parallel already. "I've visited ancient Rome more than a couple of times, I've seen 'em too. Good deal of rubbish, if you ask me, but harmless nonetheless. Always have been a big fan of birds," said the Doctor with a grin. The man returned to yelling and the Doctor knelt over the altar, where the remains of a small blackbird lay. He put on his brainy specs and examined it with a stick that he had found.

"The strange thing is, Hermione, a question arises: why _are_ the birds dying? Birds don't just fall out of nowhere, you know. Has to be some cause, some reason… aha!" He removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it at the bird. It began to shine with a faint green. Hermione's brow furrowed. What _was _this thing?

The Doctor noticed her confusion. "Oh, it's a sonic screwdriver. Shoots out sonic waves and, you know, does stuff." He had a knack for explaining things to children, but Hermione, perfectly capable of understanding, was a little frustrated at the simple answer. Nevertheless, she bent over and examined the bird more closely with him.

"So, Doctor, this isn't a normal occurrence for Roman Britain, right? There's got to be something at work here. What would make hordes of birds die and still have a green residue back in 81 A.D.?"

"Well, lots of things," he said, before rattling off a bunch of possible causes. "There's a chance of disease, of course, but no, it's got to be different than that… could be some type of predator, or malnutrition, or –"

"Doctor! What about something more modern? Don't certain chemicals leave this type of trace?"

"Or…. Or or or… radioactivity! Brilliant, Hermione Granger, simply brilliant! There's got to be something around here, something giving off radiation. See, in cases like these, you've got to think like the natives. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" he said with a silly grin.

Hermione concentrated. She was happy she hadn't given up all Muggle scientific learning once she had gone to Hogwarts, especially in the fields of science. What could be giving off this type of radiation in ancient Britain? What did Britain have that was abundant, radioactive, ancient and…

"I've got it!" she shouted. "Coal! Britain's got loads of coal!"

"…and coal has carbon-14! Radioactive isotope, got plenty of particles to shoot off. Granted, it wouldn't be in amounts like these, but still. I like the way you think, Hermione."

She smiled. "Thanks, Doctor. Same to you."

"So, if we can somehow find the source of all this coal, we could figure out what's killing the birds," he said, pacing on the steps of the temple now.

"Do you have some sort of detector?" Hermione asked, knowing that the TARDIS had plenty of alien technology that was certainly advanced enough to find a little of radioactivity.

"Well, not exactly. But no need to fear, Miss Granger, we'll build one!"

"Er… build one?" she asked. She was always more of a learning type of person, not an engineer. Spells were good enough for her.

"Yes, yes, of course! I'll need a pot, some string, the sonic, a piece of cloth, and…" he said, listing various items aloud. "Hermione, why don't you look for the cloth and string? I'll gather up the rest, and we'll meet back here in ten minutes."

-x-

They reconvened at the altar in ten minutes' time. The Doctor had a bunch of supplies in his hands, and Hermione had retrieved the cloth and string, after slyly plucking them from an unsuspecting merchant's cart.

"Well, Hermione, I've got nearly everything, but there's just one more thing I _couldn't_ find. The most important bit, too, I'm afraid. We need a sample of the coal itself."

Hermione was a little disappointed, but remembered that she still had her wand in her pocket. She grinned, pulled it out, and shouted. "_Accio coal!"_ she pronounced. Sure enough, coal came flying towards her from the south. The Doctor looked quite shocked.

"You… _what? What?_ What on Gallifrey was that?" The Doctor was taken aback by her Summoning Charm. There was obviously a lot that he had to learn from her, event though she was young.

"Oh, just some magic. We do learn things at Hogwarts, you know, Doctor," she said playfully. He grinned and thanked her. "Hermione Granger, magic extraordinaire. Brilliant!" He set to work fiddling with the set while Hermione examined the dead bird. It looked so small… so _innocent._ Although her cat, Crookshanks, wasn't very fond of birds, she certainly had a soft spot for them.

The Doctor had finished after a few minutes. "Well, here we have it! It's no Geiger counter, it's a bit shaky, yeah, but it'll do. Roman Radiation Detector!" He cocked his head to the side and winked.

"Great! Now we need to find the source, right, Doctor? When I summoned the coal, it came from the south. Should we head that way?"

"Seems like a good enough plan to me," he said. Her powers of deduction wouldn't let him stop smiling. The way she analyzed, observed, and made split-second decisions from them was brilliant. It reminded him of himself as a boy (and now, of course).

They set off to the south, running until they reached the Thames. There, they found a rickety bridge that crossed Londinium's river. Cautiously, the Doctor crossed, but Hermione didn't appear to be afraid at all. When he asked her why, she replied simply: "I'm a Gryffindor, Doctor. We're brave."

They continued down to the south until they reached the outskirts of town. There was a ramshackle old hut a few meters from the path. They decided to examine it further.

"So, Doctor, what would make the radioactive carbon deep below the ground kill the birds in the air?" Hermione asked, curious at how this poisoning worked.

"You know, dear, I'm not really sure," he said, absentmindedly observing the hut. "It does seem a bit peculiar though, doesn't it?"

"Very. Radioactivity isn't really found in such large doses in nature, so it just doesn't add up…"

"Exactly, which is why this makes it all the more interesting. Something's up here, something very, very suspicious…"

Hermione looked inside the hut and saw a hole in the ground, where a ladder stood, leading into the darkness of the deep. "So if coal is generally found underground, we should probably look in mines. This looks like a mine over here, Doctor," she said, moving inside for a closer look.

"Brilliant! And look at that pile of coal over on the floor there. That must have been where the coal you, er, called, came from. Let me try the detector…" He pulled some strings on the device and sure enough, a spark appeared, showing that there was radioactivity in the area.

"So, let's go! This is the only logical place the coal could have come from, so it makes sense enough to be here."

"Yes ma'am! I'll go first, just in case. Allons-y!"

Hermione followed the Doctor, who was beaming from ear to ear, down the ladder into the dark mine. The Doctor was happy; he had finally found a companion who was just as brilliant, logical, and daring as he was. _This is definitely better than being alone,_ he thought. _Definitely._


End file.
